This book comes with a new foreword by Graham Coxon. Narcissus is a teacher at Mariabronn, a monastery in medieval Germany, and Goldmund is his favourite pupil. While Narcissus remains detached from the world in prayer and meditation, Goldmund runs away from the monastery in pursuit of love. Thereafter, he lives a picaresque wanderer's life, his amatory adventures resulting in pain as well as ecstasy. His eventual reunion with Narcissus brings into focus the diversity between artist and thinker, Dionysian and Apollonian.